Chapter 10: Impact

Two fair-skinned Brobdingnagian women walked down a tatami-mat lined hall. One of the two had short black hair, cut just past the ears. She wore a fashionable blouse with a short gray skirt. It was just barely past the border of professional attire. A designer purse was slung over her shoulder.

The other woman, in contrast, was clad in a floral kimono that stretched from her shoulders to just about her ankles. Her own dark black hair was in a “hime” cut: short-cut frontal bangs with side-locks running down her cheeks. As another part of the hairstyle, the back of her hair stretched down, straight as the rest, but stopped instead just around her shoulders.

Each young woman wore no makeup, though the one in business attire had a couple of rings on her fingers. Both their well-manicured nails were short and unpainted. Curiously, each of the women were unshod as they traveled the hall, coming to a stop at a pair of ornately decorated, lacquered stone doors.

“This is the last stop before our meeting, Ms. Choi. I hope you enjoyed the tour of my executive floor.”

“I did. Thank you very much Ms. Oshie.”

“I do hope the no-shoes policy wasn’t too much of a burden for you. Footwear could scuff the tatami flooring.”

“Not at all.”, said Ms. Choi. “This is a beautifully designed area of the building, very traditional.”

Ms. Oshie smiled.

“Thank you, that’s lovely to hear. My office is quite traditional too, and it’s just past these doors.”

“I’m sure I’ll love it as well.”

“I think so too.”, said Ms. Oshie with a coy smirk.

She slid the door open and turned to an awe-struck Ms. Choi.

“Right this way”, said Ms. Oshie, and she took the first step inside.

--==--==--==--

The Lilliputian city had worked itself into a tizzy since the booms started. It was a familiar sensation, those reverberations underfoot, but no matter how often it occurred there was still a good deal of fear and haste surging the streets alongside it.

The steps grew closer and closer. They came along muffled, booming voices from outside. It was clear she had brought company.

A great roar of a sliding noise rung out and the doors were open. Thousands of Lilliputians in one corner of the city looked up at a pale and perfect Brobdingnagian sole. They had but a second till it stepped down towards them. They looked to the ‘sky’ and many raised their arms out of instinct.

*Thoom*

The foot slammed down right atop them, harmlessly, against the clear material which hung a few Brobdingnagian inches above them. That perfect sole smushed against the clear barrier: the only thing that protected them from their owner’s footfalls.

Another ear rattling thoom rung out as she took another casual step. Then, she stopped. The wrinkles of her sole, the whorls of her toe prints: they were pressed above the transparent protective barrier above. The Brobdingnagian's feet stretched nearly a mile. The soft bottoms of her peds made for a canopy that shrouded much of the city beneath it.

Curiously, she had paused. Then they heard her speak. Her voice came through their headsets. These were different headsets though, not the kind many a Lilliputian in the city had used before they were captured. These were controlled by ‘her’: Ms. Oshie. Also, they were pierced into the Lilliputian’s ears. They could not be removed, even if the Lilliputians wanted them gone.

When she wanted her Lilliputians to hear her words, they did. It seems she wanted that now, as her voice came through their headsets instead of just blaring through the air as any titanic Brobdingnagian's would to them.

“Sorry, perhaps I should’ve told you first.”, said Ms. Oshie.

--==--==--==--

Ms. Oshie turned to Ms. Choi, the latter of whom raised a hand to her still-gasping mouth.

Before the business-dressed Brobdingnagian was an exquisite private office. There was lots to admire about it. It had a very traditional feel with its dark-wood ceiling and lighter-wood walls. The latter of which was decorated with some hanging tapestries. A grand window loomed at the other end of the room. It showed the view of the city but, when Ms. Oshie had opened the door to the office itself, she hit a button which made some panels slid over the view to cover it for privacy.

The lighting, too, was nice, and came in the form of some tastefully located fixtures where the walls met the ceiling.

Most eye-catching of all, though, was the floor and some of the furniture. Due in front of Ms. Choi was a large, smooth black meeting table that stood just a bit of the floor. All around the table were some floor cushions for sitting. The table’s surface itself was clear though, and through the transparent material Ms. Choi saw some Lilliputian buildings arranged in grid-like sections by other transparent panes within.

Yet, that was nothing compared to what caught her eye next: the floor itself. She glanced down to Ms. Oshie’s feet, which rested atop a clear, almost invisible material. Beneath that, of course, was an entire Lilliputian city. Past it was a bit of authentic-looking ‘land’ and then more city, then another. Cities dotted the floor, alongside a sparse few smaller towns and villages and the like.

There were a few Lilliputian trees, too, among other features of the terrain. Indeed, the entire floor of Ms. Oshie’s office seemed to be a territory’s worth of Lilliputian settlements.

Ms. Oshie’s voice snapped Ms. Oshie out of her silence. She turned to face the other business woman.

“I, oh no, I just. I hadn’t expected this.”

“It’s a country’s worth of Lilliputians, I’d have been quite surprised if you did expect it. Don’t worry, you can step on it. Though the barrier is clear, the proprietary material can withstand far, far more weight than we can provide.”

Ms. Choi looked down at all the tiny specks stirring below her feet. They darted between the many buildings like little dots, discernible mostly only in their frightened mobs. She watched them flutter past, visible in the spaces between her big and second toe on each foot.

She took a step inside the office, then another. She felt warm, excited. Her smile was obvious.

“This is... amazing.”, said Ms. Choi.

Ms. Oshie moved to Ms. Choi’s front and bowed her head with gratitude.

“I don’t meet people in my personal office often. There’s only two cases where I do so. One is where I think my guests might appreciate the ‘decor’. The other is when my guests aren’t in much of a position to complain. You’re certainly not the latter, but I had you figured for the former, and I’m happy that seems to be the case.”

Ms. Choi cleared her throat. The notion of looming over dozens if not more Lilliputian cities had her feeling a tad overwhelmed.

“Yes, very much so. But, if I may ask, why?”

Ms. Oshie smiled, then started to walk slowly towards the meeting table. She spoke as she did so, her words reaching the Lilliputians beneath as well.

“You complimented my interior design before by noting its traditional qualities. We’re both rather young to be running our own companies, I’m sure many would agree.”

“Yes, I remember reading you’re one of the youngest CEOs. Just 22 years old.”

Ms. Oshie laughed. “Oh please, you flatter me. It’s not as though you’re not doing an amazing job yourself. Being the boss of all of Brob Delights Foods Inc. must be quite the task, and I believe you were on that list as well. Just 23 years old yourself. Now, as I was saying...”

Ms. Choi followed along. She lagged behind, walking a good deal slower. Below her peds, the Lilliputians looked up as a new pair of feet tormented them with quaking steps. Though their buildings remained steady, they all-the-same felt the echoing quakes, those booms, those reminders of Brobdingnagian power as the two woman walked over their ‘country’ like primordial deities.

“...despite my age, I can see value in some traditional aspects of things. I think I know how best to integrate it into many things. Not just the styles of the past, but some of the mindsets.”

Ms. Oshie stood still and paused. She politely gestured for Ms. Choi to stand by her side.

“Lilliputian history is dappled with stories of contact with our kind. They were few and far between, but what there was were nearly all disastrous. We stand miles tall to them, so the best outcome for a Lilliputian of ages past was for our kind not to stoop to notice them, and for them to be lucky enough to not get crushed under-step despite it.”

Ms. Choi nodded. The two of them looked forward towards a stretch of bustling Lilliputian cities atop authentic looking Lilliputian terrain. A few patches of Lilliputian forests with toe-tickling trees, and even a couple mountains dappled the living display spread out beneath their feet.

Ms. Oshie continued.

“But, of course, they were noticed. Many a Lilliputian settlement was destroyed by a Brobdingnagian’s foot. I read about history and archaeology in my spare time, and there’s many murals depicting titanic beings laying waste to cities and the like. Gulliverians had contact with our kind as well and in their history Brobdingnagians show up too, albeit far smaller in comparison within their own ancient drawings and the like..”

She smiled and turned to Ms. Choi for a moment.

“Now, if you were a Lilliputian in the times before education, and you saw a woman towering 6 miles above you, what would you think of them.”

“A monster. No”, said Ms. Choi. “A god.”, said Ms. Choi.

“Precisely. And there’s history of Brobdingnagian worship too. It’s very rare, as not only do the Lilliputians need to get the Brobdingnagians attention, they need to want to for some reason. Maybe it’s to try to save themselves, maybe it’s just in awe at such a massive being moving around them. That’s not all, though, the Brobdingnagian must also not be the type to ignore them or destroy them all outright.”

Ms. Oshie looked back down by her toes, and the Lilliputian civilization going on under her feet. She spoke up again.

“Have you ever heard of ‘Goddess Yuna’, Ms. Choi?”

“I can’t say I have.”, replied Ms. Choi.